New rules for hunting meteorites Options

[Woody]

Looks like the Feds are stepping up and placing restrictions on collecting meteorites. I recognize the interest and benefit science might have but the way I interpret this means more regulations placed on our public lands and activities. This might be a bit of a rant on my part but I hate all these rules and regulations on our public lands. I am reminded about the last time I was in the California N.F. I wanted to spend a couple of days in the back country camping. I found out that I needed a permit in order to even have a campfire. Here is another extreme, I was in Germany a few years ago and got an annual fishing license. It cost about 100$. However, if you actually wanted to use it you had to go down to the county court house before the last business day, and pay an additional cost for each and every day you planned on fishing. It was about 10$ extra per day.

This kind of suggest the same thing, you can’t go out hunting meteorites unless you buy a permit.



http://www.foxnews.com/science/2012/10/15/...intcmp=features

[Gene Kooper]

EMac,

Thanks for the links to the court cases. I'll read through them when I have more time.

In addition to court cases, you can find a lot of info from IBLA (Interior Board of Land Appeals) cases. When an affected party decides to challenge a BLM ruling, the party must file an administrative appeal with the IBLA. An administrative law judge will then rule on the merits. Only after a party exhausts all of their administrative appeal rights can they then proceed to a Federal district court. I posted this before, but here is the Dept. of Interior's Office of Hearing and Appeal advanced search web page. Click on the IBLA check box and enter "gulch placer" in the "with the exact phrase" box. It will list all IBLA decisions where the term "gulch placer" was found. My search produced 22 hits.

DOI Office of Hearing and Appeals - Advanced Search